Politicians reject mortgage interest relief change

Politicians narrowly voted against plans to abolish mortgage interest relief for landlords and reintroduce it for homeowners.

Nearly 10 years ago the States Assembly agreed to phase out Mortgage Interest Tax Relief and 2025 is the last tax year that the relief is available for homeowners.

However, the relief will continue to be available for landlords.

Deputy Catherine Curtis asked the States Assembly to remove Mortgage Interest Tax Relief for landlords so that it could be reintroduced for homeowners in 2027.

However, her plans were narrowly defeated with 19 politicians voting in favour of them, 21 voting against them and two abstentions.

After the vote, Curtis said: "I think a lot of people are struggling to pay mortgages and I wanted to see if we could bring it back and make it fairer by removing what people already get on buy-to-let mortgages.

"I'm very disappointed that the majority of States members voted against people have mortgage interest relief but voting to keep it for those who have buy-to-let mortgages.

"I think the assembly comes across as being more interested in certain private business interests than the interest of the general population."

The government voted against the plans including Treasury Minister Deputy Elaine Millar, who said introducing the tax relief for homeowners would not help the people who needed it most.

She said: "It's worth a relatively small amount of money, the maximum amount of money people can get is less than £400, so it's not a vast amount of money.

"Generally it benefits those people who are already better off who have mortgages, the bigger your mortgage the more benefit you get, it does nothing for renters, it doesn't help people on lower incomes."

When asked why landlords were still getting mortgage relief, Millar replied: "That is something that is subject to a consultation and is under review, and a recommendation will come to the council of ministers in January.

"Yes I accept it looks unfair, but it is unfair giving homeowners money and not to people in rental accommodation."

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